Monday, June 29, 2015

Life After Samsung and Other Blasphemy

Well I finally jumped off the Samsung reservation when my
wife got me the RCA Maven (at my suggestion) for Father’s Day. I made another
step even further off the reservation after I purchased a Moto 360 a few weeks
ago. Now in the defense of Samsung I was originally trying to get a Samsung
Fit, because I no longer trusted the Samsung Gear to make a comfortable watch,
but the Fit looked like it would be a better “fit” (see what I did there) for
my comfort and usability. Unfortunately I was purchasing the smart watch from
Staples because I had a pile of Staples bucks I had to use up before they
expired, and the Samsung Fit was out of stock and no longer available through
Staples Online. The Moto 360 on the other hand was on sale for $189 and with
the $60 worth of Staples Bucks and free shipping, I bit.

Now of course I was looking forward to the watch because at
the very least I knew it would be more comfortable than the Samsung. It also
was more stylish as it had a leather band and a round face. For the most part I
just want my watch to show the time, count my steps and interact with my smart
phone, so the fact that this watch was cheaper than any of the FitBits that
would meet all of my requirements; I figured anything else it could do is
gravy. The truth of what the watch could do was impressive almost immediately.
Now I like everyone else had problems installing the software to my smart
phone, and after lots of research online I will tell you exactly what the
problem is and how to fix it, so if you don’t read this and have all these
issues down the road, screw you. You have to have Google services installed on
your phone, which most people do, but I like most people have it disabled. By
just enabling the feature the software installs just fine.

The watch is amazingly comfortable and it appears to be
reasonably water proof. Get water on your Gear and you may be in for a bad day.
The alerts on this watch work a heck of a lot better than they did on the Gear,
and (I hear Samsung went with the Android Wear interface so this isn’t a
problem anymore) the Android Wear works where the Samsung Gear interface never
did. Of course the Samsung Gear did the basics of what I wanted to, it left me
rather underwhelmed and not really wanting much more. Now that the Moto 360 is
on my wrist I have been enjoying more of the smart watch features than I had in
the past. Most of them are Google centric features (Keep, Mail, etc) but it
integrates well with I Heart Radio, and of course being able to talk to it
helps too. It’s voice recognition appears to work very well when I take notes
or go to voice dial, but I am pretty good at speaking clearly. I’ll have to
find someone that mumbles to try it out and get back to me.

I realize that everyone is out there talking up the Apple
Watch, and I can even see that it does a lot more than the Moto 360 BUT, if I
were you I would think long and hard about what you want to do with a smart
watch. The guy in the next cubicle over has one of those new Apple Watches and
he seems pretty pissed off at it all the time. It does everything that they
promised it would do, but as he is finding out, it is a lot easier said than
done. My Moto 360 does everything I want it too, and again for at least half
the price. My Galaxy Gear did everything I wanted it too, and for years before
the people waiting for the Apple watch. Weigh your options and make sure you
know what you are doing. I’m pretty sure that if something happens to this
watch I will be looking for another one, but another thing I want to warn you about
that I learned with my last one and was out in front of on this one, get
yourself a tempered glass scratch guard. Things you wear on your wrist get
bumped against a lot of things, no matter how careful you are.

I have been bouncing around online for just about 20 years, so I have been there and have done that. It doesn't mean I didn't like it and wouldn't do it again. As most humans, I am a social animal. To be a social animal on the internet it is social media that binds us all together. I prefer Google + and Twitter but have pages on the other ones that I ignore, so you probably should too.

My Blogging

I blog a lot. If you don't like people that blog a lot then I don't know how you got here to begin with. You may want to just move along.

Contrary to popular opinion I hate politics, but have political opinions ..

The easiest way to get under my skin is to apply the "all you talk about is politics" tag. This is a common knee jerk reaction some have when they see something political, and unfortunately I don't hold back sometimes. As a matter of fact, I share more about health, fitness and blogging than politics, which you would know if you weren't busy dismissing me. I actually follow and interact with more people that disagree with me than agree with me politically. The list of "other than politics" seems to be growing everyday and it probably looks a lot like this: